Viva Il Talibano: Italian Town To Pass Anti-Blasphemy Law and Ban Both Sunbathing and Miniskirts

Castellammare di Stabia appears eager to join the forces in the West cracking down on free speech and expression. The city is moving toward the passage of a blasphemy law — the subject of prior columns and blog entries on a trend against free speech in the West. The city is also planning to ban miniskirts, sunbathing, and playing football in public places. If nothing else, the move will finally give the Taliban a seaside vacation spot to get away from it all.

The move to ban revealing clothing and criticism of religion is supported by the church. The local priest Don Paulo Cecere insists that it is not only good for local morals but it is “a way of combating the rise in sexual harassment.” Wouldn’t it be better to just punish men who cannot be around a women in a miniskirt? This is the same logic of Islamic extremists who insist on mandatory coverings for all women regardless of their beliefs. It suggests that sexual harassment is due to the fact that women dress in provocative ways.

A seaside city in Italy is planning to ban miniskirts and other revealing clothing to improve what the mayor calls standards of public decency.

Mayor Luigi Bobbio insists that his prohibitions will “restore urban decorum and facilitate better civil co-existence” — presumably by forcing people to dress more alike and speak alike on subjects of religion. Ironically Bobbio is part of a party called the “People of Freedom” — a center-right party that appears to honor freedom in its breach.

35 thoughts on “Viva Il Talibano: Italian Town To Pass Anti-Blasphemy Law and Ban Both Sunbathing and Miniskirts”

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I find it strange that most of these comments are about the idea of a mini-skirt ban, when what I find most appalling about the topic of this article is the passing of blasphemy laws. Really? Are people’s religious beliefs teetering so precariously that they cannot withstand someone speaking out against them, and so they have to be protected from someone uttering their personal opinion by a bona fide law against it? Really? I’m glad there’s no blasphemy law in my country, because I’d end up in jail for sure.

Daniel has one valid point; that there are some abhorrent things in a society that we simply have to hold our collective noses and edure—-like Libertarians and teabaggers and Republicans. But certainly not miniskirts. Miniskirts didn’t drive our economy into a deep ditch or start wars or run the national debt through the roof by borrowing/spending policies.

It’s not my decision to make. That’s my point. It’s all of ours. We should allow these societies to be autonomous, ,and make their own decisions. We shouldn’t be offended by these things, we should understand them. If you don’t like it don’t live there.

If, for the reasonable outcome of less pornographic influence in our culture, we decided as a society to ban or limit access to certain sites or computers, the byproduct of that decision would be discrimination. Either we take a moral stand or we let others take their moral stand. Either way, discrimination happens.

However, I would absolutely have a problem with government deciding these things for the people. The people should limit themselves.

I worked for many years. I know women who never wore mini skirts who were subjects of sexual harassment. Those same women didn’t wear tight-fitting sweaters or expose any cleavage either. I wonder why they were harassed???